you know you been dreamin; I been dreamin too

I have a really hard time keeping track of my dream life versus my real actual life as shared by other people. It's pretty entertaining, when it's not confusing and obstructive.

Nothin wrong with dreamin; sometimes they come true.

In high school I would regularly dream a day. I mean: while I was asleep, I would have a dream in which I woke up, got dressed, went to school, went to my classes, took notes, etc, did whatever after-school activity I had for the day, went home, made small talk with my family, did my homework and went to bed.

Then I would wake up. I would have no idea what day it was, because if I dreamed that last day I experienced then it's Wednesday (again), but if that was real, then Wednesday is over and now it's Thursday.

I never knew, really; I'd have to find a newspaper or ask my mom.

if the bad guys tie you to the railroad track, I will rescue you

In college the routine became slightly different and far more intrusive: my freshman year it happened over and over and over again that I would dream that I woke up. In the dream, I would get out of my bed and get dressed and then notice that I could barely keep my eyes open until finally I would be all "oh my GOD Cecily you're STILL aSLEEP wake UP already" so I would try really hard to wake up. And then I would wake up again and this time would make it further in the getting-ready morning process, like this time I'd get dressed and then head to the bathroom and brush my teeth and put my contacts in before I realized I was still asleep and dreaming. Usually I could force myself awake at this point, but there were a number of times when it didn't matter how hard I tried to actually wake up, the only thing that ever happened was that I dreamt that I had woken up.

The end result of that was usually that I would just give up and sleep through the lecture.

I said, nothin wrong with dreaming! Sometimes they come true!

Lately I've been dreaming (as I wake up) that I look at the clock and/or at my pager. So I read imaginary dream-world emails from people and look at the (completely dreamt) time on my clock. And sometimes get out of bed to get dressed only to realize it's way too early (in my dream world) so I don't actually have to get up yet. Or I send text messages to people and get responses in which my classes or meetings are cancelled for the day.

Of course in normal real actual time, not the time in my head, I am already late and should have been dressed and ready to leave the house fifteen minutes ago.

Everybody workin on the great big life machine, everybody bound to have a story

The best part though is when I insist to people that I already told them something in great detail. I have a clear memory of this! You were wearing a yellow shirt and we were sitting in the lobby of a hotel in downtown washington and I explained all about it! Come on you have to remember that!

Except, that, on reflection, when would I have been in that hotel? And actually, you do not own a yellow shirt. So. Apparently that was a dream. My apologies. Ahem.